Currently, nearly every American carries at least one credit card or bankcard in the form of a conventional size plastic card containing some type of memory component. Known memory components include magnetic stripes, optical stripes, and, most recently, electronic memories, such as microprocessors in the form of, for example, integrated circuit (IC) chip modules (hereafter “chip memories”).
Magnetic stripe memories are used to provide identifying information when inserted into a conventional reader and are not generally known for their ability to have information written thereto, although this function is possible. The optical stripe is useful for its' ability to function in both a reading and writing capacity with significantly more memory than the magnetic stripe memories. Finally, the chip memories, while more limited in memory capacity than the optical stripe memory, are extremely useful in their ability to actually store and run programs for manipulating transaction data.
In order to facilitate the reading from and/or writing to these multiple memories, individual read/write components are necessary for each type of memory. Currently, there are separate, non-interchangeable read/write components available for each type of memory.
There is a need for a system of read/write components that is capable of reading from and writing to a variety of different memories located on the same card without having to manually remove and re-insert the card into different read/write components. Also, a system and method is needed that is capable of analyzing the information gained from the individual memories via the individual read/write components and redistributing the information among various memories would also be beneficial.